Complete Star Wars Holiday Special
Becoming That Second Kind of Christmas
America is like that second kind of Christmas
In November of 1959, as a shocked American public were hit with the news that a number of their favourite quiz shows had in fact been rigged for some time, author John Steinbeck wrote the following letter to his friend, politician Adlai Stevenson, and spoke of his concern at such a morally bankrupt turn of events occurring in his increasingly gluttonous country.
(Source: America and Americans and Selected Nonfiction; Image: John Steinbeck, via.)
New York
1959
Guy Fawkes DayDear Adlai,
Back from Camelot, and, reading the papers, not at all sure it was wise. Two first impressions. First, a creeping, all pervading nerve-gas of immorality which starts in the nursery and does not stop before it reaches the highest offices both corporate and governmental. Two, a nervous restlessness, a hunger, a thirst, a yearning for something unknown—perhaps morality. Then there’s the violence, cruelty and hypocrisy symptomatic of a people which has too much, and last, the surly ill-temper which only shows up in human when they are frightened.
Adlai, do you remember two kinds of Christmases? There is one kind in a house where there is little and a present represents not only love but sacrifice. The one single package is opened with a kind of slow wonder, almost reverence. Once I gave my youngest boy, who loves all living things, a dwarf, peach-faced parrot for Christmas. He removed the paper and then retreated a little shyly and looked at the little bird for a long time. And finally he said in a whisper, “Now who would have ever thought that I would have a peach-faced parrot?”
This Is A Christmas F†cking Spectacular, Okay
Rutlemania Redux
The Rutles Parody the Beatles
By MARC SPITZ
The Rutles in the film “All You Need Is Cash”: from left, Eric Idle, Ricky Fataar, John Halsey and Neil Innes.
There’s long been debate over who can truly claim the title “the Fifth Beatle.” The disc jockey Murray Kaufman pursued it. Later, arguments were made for the keyboardist Billy Preston or Yoko Ono. A new graphic novel bestows the honorific on the band’s manager Brian Epstein. However, the Beatles’ most essential partners may be their fictional counterparts: the Rutles, stars of the mockumentary “All You Need Is Cash.”
The Rutles were a hapless but well-meaning band created as both tribute and goof by Eric Idle (of Monty Python fame) when he was appearing on the BBC sketch show “Rutland Weekend Television” in the mid-’70s. The group was given musical voice by Neil Innes (a Python collaborator and member of the comedy rock group Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band). The Rutles were conceived and still exist as inhabitants of a kind of meta-universe where there were no Beatles, no era-defining hits like “Penny Lane,” but rather a carefully created near-sound-alike titled “Doubleback Alley,” and no real revolution.
Each time there’s a swell of Beatlemania and a flood of product, the “Prefab Four” have been there to keep the Fab Four’s myth in check. In the mid-’90s, the multipart Beatles documentary and album “Anthology” inspired new Rutles music, “Archaeology.” In the early 2000s, the real group’s hit album “1” spawned the Rutles’ charming but less sharp mockumentary “Can’t Buy Me Lunch.”
Best YouTube Tutorial Of 2013
Fantasy Dumbasses
Crazed Fantasy Football Fans Threaten Violence, ‘Four Bullets For Each Of You Bit****’
By Ashley Dunkak / @AshleyDunkak
(Photo by Leon Halip/Getty Images)
ALLEN PARK (CBS DETROIT) – Ever get death threats over a bad day at the office? Thanks to Twitter, it happens to NFL players on a regular basis.
But it’s not just their play on the field that makes fans fly over the edge — overwhelmingly, the nastiest comments come from how that play affects fans’ fantasy football leagues.
Some tweets go beyond wishing harm on players to actually threatening violence. The following tweet targeted superstar Calvin Johnson and quarterback Matthew Stafford.
I lost my fantasy playoff game by four damn points. That’s four bullets for each of you bitches @Bigplaycj @Staff_9—
Joséf Ronaldo (@RoiJosef) December 17, 2013
Back in October, New York Giants running back Brandon Jacobs received several menacing messages on Twitter, and the content concerned him enough to contact NFL security.
Jacobs exposed the fan for terrible remarks that included, “ON LIFE BRANDON IF YOU DON’T RUSH FOR 50 YARDS AND TWO TOUCHDOWNS TONIGHT ITS OVER FOR YOU AND YO FAMILY N—–.”
That tweet was followed by one that said, “FULFILL MY ORDERS STATED IN THE PREVIOUS TWEET OR THATS YO LIFE BRUH AND IM NOT PLAYING.”
Lynching For Art’s Sake
BLACK STUDENT ‘LYNCHES’ TWO WHITE GUYS, CALLS IT ART
An African-American student at Sacramento State University is under fire for her recent work of art – which consisted of “lynching” two white men from a tree on the northern California campus.
The men were reportedly actors and were in no real danger during the project, which took place during the day in early December while students were on campus. The men were hung from a tree with a thick rope.
The senior responsible for the performance art, Christina Edwards, defended her project to Fox 40 News.
Rats With Masks
Al Goldstein Not Gone
Al Goldstein Is Not Dead
By Matthew Kassel
Contrary to what you may have heard, Al Goldstein, founder and former publisher of Screw magazine, did not die yesterday.
Although the website Real Porn Wiki Leaks reported that Mr. Goldstein had died, the news was retracted when Bleeding Cool wrote earlier today that the death could not be independently confirmed.
Author Larry “Ratso” Sloman, who has notably worked with Howard Stern, told Bleeding Cool that Mr. Goldstein, 77, is alive and stable; he is, however, in a hospital in the city.
Though Real Porn reported the wrong information, the website could not be blamed for making up Mr. Goldstein’s death out of thin air.
Last night, magician Penn Jillette, a friend of Goldstein’s, tweeted, “I’m in NYC. Today I visited my hero and friend Al Goldstein as he dies in the hospital, and tomorrow night I celebrate Lou Reed’s Life. NYC.”
A misinterpretation of the present tense, perhaps. Earlier today, Mr. Jillette clarified his message on Twitter: ”My buddy and hero, Al Goldstein is NOT dead,” he wrote. “He is unresponsive and not doing well, but he is alive. Try to stop the rumors. Thanks.”
The Breeze
‘Naturally, J.J. Cale’
Naturally, J.J. Cale: This animated Op-Doc explores why J.J. Cale, who wrote such classic songs as “After Midnight,” “Cocaine” and “Call Me the Breeze,” never achieved stardom.
Peter O’Toole Gone
Peter O’Toole Dies; ‘Lawrence of Arabia’
Star Was 81
Steve Chagollan / Assistant Managing Editor, Features
Robert Mora/Getty Images
Irish-born stage and screen actor Peter O’Toole, who became an international star in the title role of David Lean’s Oscar-winning epic “Lawrence of Arabia,” died on Saturday at age 81.
He was undoubtedly one of the greatest actors of his generation. And yet with the 2006 film “Venus,” O’Toole surpassed Welshman Richard Burton and assumed the dubious distinction of being the most nominated actor never to win a competitive Oscar. When it was first announced that O’Toole would receive an Honorary Oscar in 2002, O’Toole astonished the Academy by turning it down, announcing in a letter to the organization that he was “still in the game and might win the lovely bugger outright, would the Academy please defer the honour until I am 80.’”
But he did indeed show up at the ceremony the following year, accepting the award from Meryl Streep. “Always a bridemaid never a bride,” he said with typical theatrical flair to an adoring crowd, “my very own Oscar now to be with me till death do us part.”
He racked up eight Oscar-nominated performances — including the beloved schoolmaster in “Goodbye Mr. Chips” (1969); two portrayals of King Henry II (“Becket,” 1964, “Lion in Winter,” 1968); an insane aristocrat who thinks he’s Jesus Christ in “The Ruling Class” (1972); the larger-than-life film director in “The Stunt Man” (1980); and the swashbuckling actor in “My Favorite Year” — but his “Lawrence” always loomed largest.
Very tall, improbably slender, ostentatiously opulent
Sky’s the limit: New towers for the rich soar in New York
The very tall, very skinny residential buildings popping up in Manhattan are being built for the world’s richest people
NEW YORK — Here’s how a 1932 guide to Manhattan describes the view of Central Park from the 43-story Essex House: “an unbroken vista — unequaled anywhere in the city. … Few apartment buildings in the world are more ideally located.”
Today, here’s how visitors typically describe the park view from One57, an apartment building a block south of the Essex House and more than twice its height: “Wow!”
The same can be said of the building itself. One57 exemplifies a new type of skyscraper — very tall, improbably slender, ostentatiously opulent — that is reshaping a famous skyline composed mostly of bulky office buildings.
One such apartment tower under construction, 432 Park Avenue, will have a top floor higher than the Empire State Building’s observation deck. Another will have a top floor higher than any in One World Trade Center, which is officially (by virtue of its spire) the nation’s tallest building.
The 432 Park penthouse has sold for $95 million; two duplex apartments at One57, now nearing completion, also are under contract, each for more than $90 million. Even a studio apartment on a lower floor at 432 Park (designed for staff — a maid or butler) costs $1.59 million.
Buffalo Wings
PICTURE OF THE DAY
A large adult buffalo attacks a young lion to protect a young buffalo in Kruger National Park, South Africa. PHOTOGRAPH BY Great Stock / Barcroft Media
It’s All Just A Bunch Of Bullshit
Simulations back up theory that Universe is a hologram
A ten-dimensional theory of gravity makes the same predictions as standard quantum physics in fewer dimensions.
by Ron Cowen
At a black hole, Albert Einstein’s theory of gravity apparently clashes with quantum physics, but that conflict could be solved if the Universe were a holographic projection. ARTIST’S IMPRESSION BY MARKUS GANN/ SHUTTERSTOCK
A team of physicists has provided some of the clearest evidence yet that our Universe could be just one big projection.
In 1997, theoretical physicist Juan Maldacena proposed1 that an audacious model of the Universe in which gravity arises from infinitesimally thin, vibrating strings could be reinterpreted in terms of well-established physics. The mathematically intricate world of strings, which exist in nine dimensions of space plus one of time, would be merely a hologram: the real action would play out in a simpler, flatter cosmos where there is no gravity.
Maldacena’s idea thrilled physicists because it offered a way to put the popular but still unproven theory of strings on solid footing — and because it solved apparent inconsistencies between quantum physics and Einstein’s theory of gravity. It provided physicists with a mathematical Rosetta stone, a ‘duality’, that allowed them to translate back and forth between the two languages, and solve problems in one model that seemed intractable in the other and vice versa. But although the validity of Maldacena’s ideas has pretty much been taken for granted ever since, a rigorous proof has been elusive.
In two papers posted on the arXiv repository, Yoshifumi Hyakutake of Ibaraki University in Japan and his colleagues now provide, if not an actual proof, at least compelling evidence that Maldacena’s conjecture is true.
Paper Airplane Guy
Win A Stool Made Of Fungus
 |
 |
| Win a stool made of fungus
This is certain to be the most-talked about item of furniture you ever own. New Scientist is offering one lucky reader the chance to win a beautiful stool made by artist Philip Ross from the reishi mushroom. Visit the competition page here, where you can find all the info about this unique prize, including how it was made, along with details on how to enter. But don’t delay as the competition closes this week on Thursday 12th December. Subscribe to New Scientist now as a treat for yourself or a gift for someone else – get our best deal here. Good luck! The New Scientist team |
“I don’t know any man who wants to just snuggle.”
Business selling snuggles raises suspicion in Madison, Wis.
By Todd Richmond
MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin’s ultra-liberal capital city is a place where just about anything goes, from street parties to naked bike rides. But city officials say a business is pushing even Madison’s boundaries by offering, of all things, hugs.
For $60, customers at the Snuggle House can spend an hour hugging, cuddling and spooning with professional snugglers.
Snugglers contend that touching helps relieve stress. But Madison officials suspect that the business is a front for prostitution and, if it’s not, fear that snuggling could lead to sexual assault. Not buying the message that the business is all warm and fuzzy, police have talked openly about conducting a sting operation, and city lawyers are drafting a new ordinance to regulate snuggling.
“There’s no way that [sexual assault] will not happen,” Assistant City Attorney Jennifer Zilavy said. “No offense to men, but I don’t know any man who wants to just snuggle.”
Revolution Solo
FIVE FUTURISTIC CONTROLLERS RECONNECTING MUSICIANS WITH MACHINES
THE HUMAN TOUCH: FIVE FUTURISTIC CONTROLLERS RECONNECTING MUSICIANS WITH MACHINES
WORDS BY Laurent Fintoni
Our recent live music roundtable underlined the importance of ‘humanity’ in electronic music performances.
Despite appearances, it’s not quite ‘rise of the machines’ out there just yet. While plenty of people are content with live shows that are by-and-large pre-programmed and leave little room for error, thus being more akin to live dubbing or DJ sets than live music per se, our conversation with Scanner, debruit, Comfort Fit and Archie Pelago underlined the importance of human error and control in modern music performance. And what better way to bring this to audiences – both sonically and visually – than with new types of controllers and instruments?
There are plenty of controllers out there that allow musicians to control laptops and hardware in the studio and on stage, though some of the most interesting progress with regards to their evolution is coming from the fringes. A perfect example of this is the monome, a custom-built controller that has grown over the past decade to encompass a worldwide community of users and creators, with perhaps its most famous live exponent being Daedelus, who uses it for his own live shows.
Zeppelin’s deep wisdom and profound poetry… cleverly illustrated with children’s primer/classic rock art mash-ups
Everything I Need to Know I learned From Led Zeppelin
Moobs
Does smoking pot cause man boobs?
Editor’s note: Dr. Anthony Youn is a plastic surgeon in metro Detroit. He is the author of “In Stitches,” a humorous memoir about growing up Asian-American and becoming a doctor.
(CNN) — A young man in his 20s — let’s call him George — sits across from me in the exam room.
“Dr. Youn,” he says, “I have man boobs.”
I notice a not-so-unfamiliar smell wafting from his body. It’s the same odor that floated my way during a rock concert I recently attended.
“How long have you had a problem with this, George?”
“Hard to say. But it seems to have gotten worse over the past year or so.”
“George, the first thing you need to do is stop smoking pot. Marijuana could be causing your man boobs.”
She’s Alive
Bob Dylan détestable
Bob Dylan charged in France over Rolling Stone interview
Paris (AFP) – Bob Dylan has been charged with incitement to hatred in France after he was quoted comparing Croats with Nazis in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, a judicial source said Monday.
The world-famous American singer was questioned and charged last month while on a visit to Paris during which he gave several concerts and was awarded the Legion d’Honneur, one of France’s top honours, the source said.
The charge against him centres on a 2012 interview with Rolling Stone magazine during which he compared the relationship between Croats and Serbs to that of the Nazis and the Jews.
“This country is just too fucked up about colour…. People at each other’s throats just because they are of a different colour,” Dylan told Rolling Stone, discussing race relations in the United States.
“Blacks know that some whites didn’t want to give up slavery — that if they had their way, they would still be under the yoke, and they can’t pretend they don’t know that.
“If you got a slave master or Klan in your blood, blacks can sense that. That stuff lingers to this day. Just like Jews can sense Nazi blood and the Serbs can sense Croatian blood.”
The charge came after the Council of Croats in France (CRICCF) filed a complaint about the comments.
First Killing By Cops Ever In Iceland
Rare Iceland armed police operation leaves man dead
The incident took place in the east of Reykjavik
Icelandic police have shot dead a man who was firing a shotgun in his apartment in the early hours of Monday.
It is the first time someone has been killed in an armed police operation in Iceland, officials say.
Tear gas canisters were fired through the windows in an attempt to subdue the 59-year-old, who lived in the east of the capital, Reykjavik.
When this failed he was shot after firing at police entering the building. Between 15 and 20 officers took part.
Back-up was provided by special forces.
The tear gas was used when the man, who has not been named, failed to respond to police attempts to contact him and continued shooting.
When they entered the apartment, two members of the special forces were injured by shotgun fire – one in the face, the other in the hand.
André Schiffrin Gone
André Schiffrin, Publishing Force and a Founder of New Press, Is Dead at 78
André Schiffrin, a publishing force for 50 years, whose passion for editorial independence produced shelves of serious books, a titanic collision with a conglomerate that forced him out to stem losses, and a late-in-life comeback as a nonprofit publisher, died in Paris on Sunday. He was 78.
The son of a distinguished Paris publisher who fled Nazi-occupied France during World War II, Mr. Schiffrin grew up in a socialist New York literary world and became one of America’s most influential men of letters. As editor in chief and managing director of Pantheon Books, a Random House imprint where making money was never the main point, he published novels and books of cultural, social and political significance by an international array of mostly highbrow, left-leaning authors.
Taking risks, running losses, resisting financial pressures and compromises, Mr. Schiffrin championed the work of Jean-Paul Sartre, Günter Grass, Studs Terkel, Michel Foucault, Simone de Beauvoir, Noam Chomsky, Julio Cortázar, Marguerite Duras, Roy Medvedev, Gunnar Myrdal, George Kennan, Anita Brookner, R. D. Laing and many others.
But in 1990, after 28 years at Pantheon, Mr. Schiffrin was fired by Alberto Vitale, the chief executive of Random House, in a dispute over chronic losses and Mr. Schiffrin’s refusal to accept cutbacks and other changes. His departure made headlines, prompted resignations by colleagues, led to a protest march joined by world-renowned authors, and reverberated across the publishing industry in articles and debates.
Many in publishing spoke against the dismissal, calling it an assault on American culture by Random House’s billionaire owner, S. I. Newhouse Jr., who was accused of blocking a channel for contrary voices in favor of lucrative self-help books and ghostwritten memoirs for the sake of the bottom line. Mr. Schiffrin was conspicuously silent, his severance package barring him for a time from discussing the issue publicly.
Xmas-Time Is Here Again
Cloud-filled Canyon
Grand Canyon filled with fog, spectacular photos
By Erin Jordan
A ‘Temperature Inversion’ was responsible for this awesome sight.
Cold air was locked up in the Grand Canyon with warm air sitting above it.
The warm air acts like a lid, locking the cold air in the canyon and preventing movement and mixing between the two air masses.
The chilly air in the canyon cooled to the dew point and clouds formed, filling the canyon with fog.
Virtual Insanity
Landmark Johnie’s
Johnie’s coffee shop designated L.A. landmark
By Catherine Saillant and David Zahniser
(Cheryl A. Guerrero, Los Angeles Times / October 1, 2013)
The Los Angeles City Council voted Wednesday to make a closed coffee shop used in the movie “The Big Lebowski” a historic-cultural landmark.
Councilman Paul Koretz said Johnie’s at Wilshire Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue is one of the most notable examples of work by the firm Armet & Davis, the architectural firm that designed Norms, Pann’s and other diners across Southern California.
Koretz, who represents the area, said he hopes the property’s owners can be talked into reopening the building as a coffee shop. The structure, built in 1956, is on a corner where Metro is planning a subway stop.
Preservationists describe Johnie’s as one of the best remaining examples of Googie architecture, a style popularized in Southern California coffee shops and diners from the 1940s through the early 1960s. Googie structures were designed to draw motorists and feature upswept roofs, geometric shapes and the use of steel, glass and neon.
Beastie Girls
Toy Company Pulls Beastie Boys Song From Viral Video
By DAVE ITZKOFF
A San Francisco-area toy company offered an olive branch to the Beastie Boys on Wednesday, saying that it had no intentions of fighting the rap group over a popular online video that used a parody of the band’s song “Girls.” The company has removed the parody song from the video.
“We don’t want to fight with you,” the toy company, GoldieBlox, said in an open letter to the Beastie Boys. “We love you and we are actually huge fans.”
GoldieBlox, which makes toys and games designed to encourage young women’s interests in engineering, had gained widespread attention for the video, set to an alternate version of “Girls,” in which girls sang about all the feats of science they can accomplish. (In the original song, the Beastie Boys rapped about women’s prowess “to do the dishes” and “to clean up my room.”)
Last week, GoldieBlox filed a lawsuit against the Beastie Boys, asserting what it said was its right to use its version of “Girls” in the video and saying that it had been created “to comment on the Beastie Boys song” and was “recognized by the press and the public as a parody and criticism of the original song.”
Adam Horovitz and Michael Diamond, the surviving members of the Beastie Boys, responded to the suit in an open letter on Monday. “As creative as it is,” they said of the video, “make no mistake, your video is an advertisement that is designed to sell a product, and long ago, we made a conscious decision not to permit our music and/or name to be used in product ads.”
“When we tried to simply ask how and why our song ‘Girls’ had been used in your ad without our permission,” the letter continued, “YOU sued US.”